Boston Injury Lawyer Blog

Our Massachusetts legal malpractice blog, http://www.boston-injury-lawyer-blog.com/legal-malpractice/, tries to give updates to the law. In addition, we have undertaken a study of all of the lawyer disciplinary matters in Massachusetts for 2008-2010 which was published in our website. That study reviews all 57 admonitions and breaks them down into the types of cases, years in practice and discusses the aggravating and mitigating factors. We reported that study on our legal malpractice blog on January 12, 2011.

In our new study, published today, we review the more serious Board of Bar Overseers cases. The cases we review are the ones in which an attorney in Massachusetts loses his or her license to practice law. In the 116 cases of public reprimands, term suspensions, indefinite suspensions, we examine what Massachusetts lawyers did to deserve the severe penalties.

The study examines all 116 severe discipline cases from 2010, analyzing the data using the following criterion: years in practice, fields of practice, severity of punishment, type of violation, severity of punishment, aggravating and mitigating factors, and others. The results are published on our website in the Legal Malpractice News section.
We have divided the investigation into six articles, each of which is, or will be, published on our website today:

1. Getting Disbarredbegins with the "juiciest cases" including those involving serious crimes, crimes that make headlines, and those involved with stealing client monies.
2. You're Suspended! discusses the suspension cases and the reasoning for the terms of suspensions, including why there are so many "year and a day" suspensions.
3. Failing to Learn from Experience reviews the disciplinary cases such as disbarment, suspension and public reprimand and compares the recent incident to the lawyer's history. We review "experienced lawyers" and "highly experienced lawyers" and see if we can differentiate when it comes to punishment.
4. The Punishment Fits the Crime?, to be published in the future, discusses cases where the resulting sanction seems either too harsh or too lenient for the underlying facts.
5. Private or Public Consequences, to be published in the future, discusses the distinctions between private sanctions (such as reprimands and admonitions) and public sanctions (such as public reprimands).
6. Data Mining, to be published in the future, is a statistical analysis of the raw data, with an eye toward spotting trends in bar discipline.

Undertaking studies such as these are the result of long and laborious reviews of hundreds of documents. We want to thank our extraordinary diligent researcher, Boston Attorney Ezra Reinstein, of The Reinstein Firm, for his focus, his attention to detail, and his hard work in this project. In addition to working in the area of corporate organization and litigation, Attorney Reinstein practices in the national and internationally growing field of renewable energy law.

Boston personal injury attorney Neil Burns was cited in the National Lawyers Guild's monthly newsletter this December for his work on the Board of the Lawyer Referral Service. The referral service, a project of the NLG, has a mission of referring low and moderate income clients to attorneys in Boston and throughout Massachusetts. Attorney Burns' office regularly accepts Massachusetts bankruptcy clients and Boston personal injury clients through the Lawyer Referral Service

The article, written by LRS Coordinator Sara DeConde, stated that Neil's "driving interest in this project remains in his ability to help lower-income people" after "15 years involvement with the LRS." Neil pointed out that initially the Coordinator was a part time position; in the first 10 months of this year the LRS has referred 3,113 clients to attorneys. In all times, and especially when the economy is weak, access to justice is critical; access to a lawyer who is an expert in the field of need is even more essential.

Neil also notes that two of the recent coordinators for the project have received legal services scholarships to law school.

Once again, I thank my colleagues who have honored me with the nomination as a 2010 Massachusetts Superlawyer. Frankly, it is the lawyers that nominated me that are the super ones! The only path to this honor is first, and foremost, utmost attention to aggressively and zealously representing our clients interests. Second, I could not undertake all of the work necessary without a fantastic staff, Attorney Thiadora A. Pina and Legal Assistant Caroline L. Lorenz. Furthermore, working effectively for victims of personal injury, and legal malpractice, requires a commitment and training that I am fortunate to have.

I also want to congratulate Attorney Keith P. Slattery, who worked diligently in this office for our clients for over 8 years. He was nominated as one of the Superlawyer Rising Stars. Only 2.5% of lawyers in Massachusetts can qualify for this distinction. Keith Slattery certainly was a star performer while working diligently for our clients here in Boston and we will him well in his own practice in Melrose, Massachusetts.

Super Lawyers is a Thompson Reuters business that, throughout the country, looks for attorneys in each state using a "rigorous, multiphase rating process" including peer nominations, evaluations and research. The selection process can be viewed by going to the Super Lawyers website.

Boston University was the site of a lecture recently given by Massachusetts car accident and personal injury attorney Thiadora Pina. The event was dubbed Legal Spotlight, and included Boston University undergraduate students interested in attending law school and learning more about Boston personal injury law. The event was organized by the Cape Verdean Student Association and the Diversity in Law Association, two undergraduate organizations that are part of Boston University.

The undergraduate students in attendance were a lively group, and came prepared with many questions about attending law school and practicing law. The first step for any undergraduate interested in law school is identifying those schools of interest, and also preparing for the Law School Aptitude Test, or the LSAT. We began our discussion with these topics, but they by no means encompassed the scope of event.

Continue reading "Legal Spotlight and Attorney Lecture at Boston University" »

Boston Cape Verdean Attorney Thiadora Pina, an associate at the Law Office of Neil Burns, is pleased to announce her appointment to the board of the Cape Verdean Association of Brockton, a non-profit community based organization, whose mission is to provide education, health, civic, social and human services to Cape Verdeans residing in the greater Brockton, Massachusetts area.

Attorney Pina, a Boston lawyer with a focus on personal bankruptcy and personal injury, has been representing clients since 1999. She, and has extensive experience in the trial courts in Massachusetts.

Continue reading "Boston Cape Verdean Attorney Joins Brockton Association" »

If you file a legal malpractice claim in Massachusetts, beware that what you think may be attorney client privileged communications, may not be privileged at all! In a recent Boston legal malpractice case, a technical motion regarding what was "discoverable" resulted in a huge loss of privacy and attorney client privilege for the client.

Lawyers Weekly staff writer, Eric T. Berkman wrote: "Neil Burns, a legal-malpractice lawyer in Boston who was not involved in the case, said the decision simply shows that a malpractice plaintiff 'can't have his cake and eat it, too.' By logical extension, Burns said, "any subsequent attorney representing the plaintiff regarding the same divorce action should be required to provide information regarding communications and work product."

Continue reading "Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly Newspaper Quotes Legal Malpractice Lawyer Neil Burns" »

The fifth annual Cape Verdean-Jewish Seder was held at the St. Patrick's Church in Roxbury, on March 24, 2010 to bring together the two communities. Over 200 included a mix of Jews and Cape Verdeans. Attorney Thiadora A. Pina, an associate at the Law Office of Neil Burns, is Vice President of the Board of Directors for CVC Unido - Cape Verdean Community Unity, and was an organizer of the community event. The Cape Verdean Consulate General was the guest speaker.

The Cape Verdean - Jewish Seder is a new ritual which celebrates the commonalities of the two groups; histories of enslavement and liberation, far-flung Diasporas, challenges of immigration to the United States, an heritages of prevailing over tremendous hardships. Many folks do not know, but for a period when Cape Verde was a Portuguese colony, Jews facing oppression in Portugal, during Inquisition, fled to Cape Verde in the 15th and 16th centuries. Apparently, the groups intermarried and ceased to exist separately.

The Law Office of Neil Burns is pleased to announce that associate attorney, Attorney Thiadora A. Pina has been elected to the Board of Directors for Cape Verdean Community Unity, known as CVC Unido. CVC Unido is considered the only Cape Verdean agency in the City of Boston. Formed in 1999, as The Cape Verdean Task Force, it became CVC Unidoin 2004 in an effort to underscore the fact that the agency was a vibrant community agency serving the greater Boston Cape Verdean community.

Continue reading "Attorney Thiadora A. Pina Joins Boston organization's Board of Directors " »

Super Lawyers magazine announced that Attorney Neil Burns was elected a "Massachusetts Super Lawyer" - a title awarded to less than 5% of the attorneys in the Commonwealth.

The Super Lawyers selection process involves three basic steps: creation of the candidate listl; evaluation of candidates; and peer evaluation for each practice area. The publisher says that those that become Super Lawyers "have attained a high degree of peer recognition and professional achievement." The award is made by Law and Politics, of Minneapolis, Minnesota. They claim to make awards across the country and reach more than 13 million readers.

I acknowledge that without the dedicated work of my associate and assistant, there could be no nomination. Further, without the acknowledgment by my peers in the evaluation process, there would be no approval. Finally, without deserving clients, there would be no motivation; you are all super!